A Medic and a Nurse
by Prime627
Summary: Ratchet was totally against humans. He despised them. He wanted nothing to do with them. Then it all changed, and the years that Ratchet had hated humans was fondly called BJ by Optimus. (The start of a story due to an unintentional prompt)
1. Chapter 1

Ratchet was never fond of humans. He didn't find a use for them. They were loud, annoying, got under-pede, and they never stopped asking _why._ It didn't _matter_ what you told the little brats. They would want another explaination to the one you just gave them.

He sighed and tapped several keys a little too hard. It got Optimus' attention. The Prime raised on optic ridge as he let Jack climb onto his shoulder. The human had been trying to show him something or another. Ratchet hadn't cared what. He had just wanted the humans gone. They had been fine before this.

That was before he met an adult human. The time when Ratchet hated humans was known fondly as BJ.


	2. Chapter 2

Ratchet was watching Miko practice her guitar when June drove up with sandwiches, not like Miko and Jack pitched in to buy enough food to fill the makeshift pantry in the RecRoom.

He stared at her non-transforming vehicle that was obviously in need of repairs and he knelt by it. "June," he said. "Why have you not taken your mode of transportation in for a check-up?"

"Times are hard, Ratchet," she said and she set the bag of sandwiches in Optimus' servo. The Prime helped her onto the catwalk.

In comparison to the young adults, the adult humans were mature, fairly quiet, and didn't prevent Ratchet from working. And she was helpful around the MedBay, always willing to learn a new technique. _It takes a nurse and a medic to learn one thing in its enterity,_ Optimus had joked once.

Ratchet now watched June as she investigated a small machine Ratchet had finished working on. It was supposed to entertain the humans for hours, but only Raf had been interested in the flashing lights and sounds that the machine had to offer.

"That is an entertainment device," he explained.

"It kind of looks like a game called Simon."

"It is a Cybertronian version of your game," he said softly. He had returned to his work, researching Earth the way he wanted the humans to research Cybertron.

Optimus was watching June as she tried to play the Cybertronian Simon game. He loved watching humans, Ratchet knew. Optimus hadn't had the time to sire sparklings, so he instead "adopted" the humans as his own children. He was always hovering over one or the other, and it irritated Ratchet to no end.

But he was slowly coming around. He had entertained the humans to some degree, especially when they wanted to be Bridged into a confined space moving at seventy miles per hour. He had worried about their safety then, mostly because Optimus would have peeled his paint.

June gave up on the game. "It may be a Cybertronian version, but it's still hard." She came up to stand behind Ratchet's monitors. "What are you researching?"

Ratchet didn't look up. He wouldn't give her that satisfaction. "Family units."

June made a soft noise of confirmation, then she walked back to Optimus. "Is he always like this?"

Optimus made an amused sound. "Only every day, June. But you should catch him when he is in a good mood."

"When is that?"

"Hardly ever," Optimus whispered.

Ratchet looked over at them. "I may be crabby, old, and rusting, but my hearing is as sharp as ever!"

June swatted at Optimus then, to Ratchet's surprise. "That's not very nice of you, Optimus. He's an equal member of this team, you know."

Optimus nodded, but he was still smiling and he gave his old friend's shoulder a pat. "I know he is, June. I know how much he means to the team." He smiled at Ratchet and earned another swat to the face.

"I will make your next check-up very uncomfortable."

Once again to his surprise, June laughed. It wasn't a small giggle or even slightly muffled. It was a full I'm-Comfortable-With-You laugh that made Ratchet's faceplate's warm.

He heard no end of it from the rest of the team after June left.


	3. Chapter 3

Ratchet was waiting patiently. Optimus noted that he seemed overly happy, and his optic ridges shot up as he looked over at Arcee, who shrugged.

Then they saw why.

June was pulling up with more food for the humans, possibly the pizza she had promised last night. Ratchet went back over to his work station just as she arrived and it seemed that he would disappear again upon a human arrival.

But he returned and lifted her car as soon as she was out.

"Ratchet, what are you-?"

"I am fixing it for you," he explained, and then he was gone.

Optimus' mouth fell open and Arcee copied him. June crossed her arms and smiled.

"And you said he didn't have any good days," June accused as she patted Optimus' pede.

"He does not," Optimus murmured, then he shook himself. "Primus. I wonder if Ratchet is injured."

Arcee rubbed her helm in confusion. "I don't think so. He was fine when I took a long shower this morning."

By that, she meant that he had yelled at her about it for half of an Earth hour.

After the human children devoured the pizza and just when June was getting anxious about missing her shift, Ratchet rolled up in his ambulance form and apologized about her car not being thoroughly fixed. He offered her a ride back to her hospital, and Optimus' mouth fell open again.

June sat in Ratchet's passenger seat and she saw that the interior was almost perfect. No human had ever sat in him, it seemed, while Optimus' cab had obvious wear due to Miko, her son, and maybe Raf.

"What's with this nice-streak, Ratchet?"

"I am still researching family units, and I realized that every child had a mother and a father, every child in our base except Jack, and I was wondering why."

June looked out the window and sighed. Ratchet wondered if she had the ability to growl as a Cybertronian, would she have growled then? "I don't want to talk about it yet, Ratchet. I appreciate your concern, but after _he_ left, I have been raising Jack for thirteen years and everything seems to be going well. Isn't he a great boy?"

"Yes, it appears that so far, you have done an excellent job in rearing him," Ratchet said. He parked in front of the hospital and opened his door for her, then he watched her go.

When he arrived back at base, Optimus never let him be.

"Remember when it was BJ," Arcee said as she elbowed Ratchet, "when you hated humans?"

BJ?

He gave Optimus a glare. "BJ?"

He grinned. "Before June."

"Prime, I will officially attend your funeral only to spit on your grave!"

Optimus laughed and he hugged his old friend. "Thanks for burying the grudges against humans. I knew you would come around eventually."

Ratchet gave him the Cybertronian insult. He bit his thumb at Optimus, then walked away.

The Prime was still grinning. "I will see you later, old friend!"

"No, you won't!"

"Yes, I will!"

"In case you cannot see, I am biting my thumb at you again!"

Arcee watched with amusement, then went to the catwalk to smile at Jack. "So, what do you think about having a Cybertronian as a sire?"

Jack gave her a glare. "Don't push it..."


	4. Chapter 4

Ratchet drove June back and forth from work for days while he worked on her car. She would sit on his work table and watch as he made modifications where he saw fit. She stopped talking to Optimus, and the Prime barely saw her.

Meanwhile, Jack and Miko were making jokes about how their relationship would work out. They saw this as a little one-time thing, but they didn't get that Ratchet was serious, and June was getting there.

Finally, June's car was fixed and the humans stared in awe at the newly repaired vehicle. It had been repainted with a paint that could change colors in the sun: from white to an icy-blue. The broken radio had been replaced with an updated version, the airbags had been repaired, the seats had been sewn back together...Jack could hardly recognize the car and he began to see Ratchet in a new light.

It was a Sunday night, which meant that Bulkhead and Arcee and Bumblebee were to take the humans back so they could sleep the recommended number of hours before school. June had asked Ratchet if she could stay a little longer.

The medic allowed her into his lab, setting her on her little area that he had cleared off on his table. He was ready to speak with her about his own past, and he wondered if she was ready to talk to him about hers.

He began first, telling her about the mate he had lost due to the war, telling her about his only son that he had held while he shuddered through his last moments of his life. He told her how Optimus drug him to his pedes and put him to work. He watched her blue eyes widen as he went on and he had begun to speak lower. She would move as close as she dared to hear him, and he would move his face closer so that she didn't have to move.

She began to tell her own story: Falling in love with a peer, finishing high school and college without incident, finding out she was pregnant months after her wedding, then waking up one day and finding he left her with a three-year-old boy. She had worked hard to put him through a good school, trying to make sure that he was growing up the way she hoped.

Ratchet touched her cheek with a digit, keeping her from losing her hold on her emotions. He still didn't know what to do with a crying human other than walking away and praying they stopped on their own. He bit his lip and he guided her into his servo. He wanted to try something. He pressed his mouth onto her head and she wrapped her arms around his face in the most awkward hug in history.

That was about the time that Optimus and Miko came in.

Miko's phone flashed.

And the picture of Ratchet and June was saved on her phone. There was no way she could be convinced to delete it.

Optimus smiled and he leaned against the doorway. "Such a precious couple you two will be. Just wait until I tell Jack about his new sire."

Ratchet looked at him. The Prime wasn't serious. He just liked to tease his friend like anyone else. To his amazement, Ratchet dismissed him with a shrug and he went back to focusing his attention on June.

"Primus," Optimus said as he backed out. "Mmm..."

Miko looked over at him. "What are you thinking about?"

"I am thinking that the size difference will be a major problem for this relationship, but I believe that I have a solution."

Miko leaned against his cheek as she scrolled through her photos. "Okay, Prime."

Optimus walked back to his personal computer and began researching.


	5. Chapter 5

When Ratchet woke up that morning, he was smaller than usual, and June was curled up by his side. Optimus was grinning in the doorway, and Ratchet glared at him.

"You've been acting weird, Prime," he growled.

Optimus shrugged a bit. "The war is almost over and my oldest friend is getting back on his pedes. Of course I am feeling out of character. I do not have to give battle plans for much longer and I no longer have to worry that you are sinking deeper and deeper into depression."

Ratchet looked over at June. He was only a foot and a couple inches taller than her now. "And why am I short?"

"I prefer the term 'fun-size', but it is temporary, I promise. The Matrix is a very delicate tool and it has allowed mechs to shrink and grow before."

"Prime, when I am back to my normal size, I will throw all my good wrenches at you."

Optimus couldn't resist. "What about the bad ones?"

The medic's optics narrowed. "I have been saving those to ram them up your aft."

The Prime's optics widened as he watched him. "I bet you have," he said simply and he walked away.

Miko was waiting for him on the catwalk. "I was right?"

Optimus nodded a bit. "Mm. He was less than thrilled to find he was a good six-foot-three."

Ratchet sat up, and that disturbed June.

"Ratchet? What happened to you?"

The medic scrabbled for his data-pad, but he wasn't tall enough to snatch it off his nightstand. "Prime was struck with a sense of humor."

June rolled over onto her belly. "That doesn't sound like Optimus," she said softly. She was busy doing the math: Short human plus short Cybertronian. She was liking the possible results.

"No, it doesn't, but he's been feeling great since Megatron disbanded the Decepticons and the little rogues are padding up and mewing for Optimus to feed and care for them."

June giggled softly at that image. She could see Knock Out holding a buffer up to the Prime and begging like a kitten. She looked up at Ratchet again.

The medic was cursing as he sat down on his pillow and he was hugging his knees to his chest. She moved closer and she smiled when he looked at her with softening blue optics. "We can probably make the best of things..."

OoO

Optimus went to check on them, and when he did, he was shocked into silence.

June was laying in the middle of the bed, the sheets wrapped around her naked body while Ratchet sat, back to his full size, watching her.

As Ratchet promised, the medic chased the Prime with a bucket of wrenches.

Ratchet never missed.

Optimus never learned to duck.

**EPILOGUE COMING SOON**


	6. Chapter 6

**Epilogue:**

Ratchet watched his mate, purring gently as he slowly returned to work. She was knitting again, something that had recently gotten both of their attention. Due to the recent arrival, June had been given time off from work. With her extra time to keep her from losing her mind, she had taken to staying with the Autobots, including her mate.

Optimus was busy being baby-sitter as punishment for putting Ratchet in the position of being a sire in the first place.

Miko was watching June. She had given up trying to knit after she got her fingers tied up in her work.

The momentary (as always) peace in the base was broken by a round of hysterical sobbing and Optimus' franting hushing and the sound of his pedes hitting the ground as he paced with the infant.

Ratchet swatted Optimus before he snatched the little hybrid back. "Optimus, what is the matter with you?"

Optimus laughed softly as he watched. "I have no experience with children."

"That's your excuse?"

June made a soft sound as she watched her mate. "I'll take her," she said and she stood up. Ratchet laid the little infant in her arms and he watched as he let his cheek rest on the catwalk rails.

The hybrid was unusual. It had human skin, a nose unlike the Cybertronians, and black hair like June, but that is were all similarities seemed to end. It had optics, little digit-like fingers, and little pede-like feet. It even had teeny toes. The skin, however, seemed paper-thin, but under it appeared to be armor. When Ratchet drew its blood, it was purple, a perfect mix of blood and Energon. It was as big as a female human toddler, though it was a few days old.

June sat down with her daughter in her lap and she looked over at Optimus who had joined them. "How long will she live?"

"Well, humans live around eighty to ninety years old, and Cybertronians live for millions and millions of years, possibly even more. I would say that she would live about half of our expectancy."

June nodded and she looked back down at her baby. "And she won't be little long."

"No. She will be fully grown by the end of this month."

Ratchet reached over and he touched his daughter's head. "She will be a lovely hybrid," he whispered.

June found herself agreeing, smiling down at the little Cybertronian-human as she paddled her ped-feet and sucked on her thumb. "And you will always be there for her," she hissed.

Ratchet looked at her. "Of course." It still made him sad that he would outlive his mate, and he would miss June, but he thought he was lucky that he would have part of her for as long as he possibly could. He lookd at his daughter again.

Miko peeked over June's shoulder at the little one. "What did you decide to call her?"

June looked at her. "Jade."

Ratchet took his daughter from June and he let Miko interrogate his mate while he walked back to the computers. He had been taking CNA samples from her, and he had successfully made a sort of model of what she would like like at the end of the month. "This is you," he whispered, and the baby squealed in delight at the image.

He laid his daughter in the little crib on the catwalk so she oculd get some sleep, then he turned around to see the other Autobots purring at him. "What?" he demanded. "Just because I have a family now doesn't mean I can't still throw some wrenches around at some helms."

They fled the room and Ratchet grinned. Jade squealed and laughed at the sight of the Autobots running away and that encouraged Ratchet into a laugh.

"Don't teach our child to be violent," June scolded.

"She's growing up in an Autobot base. She'll be violent if I wrap her in bubblewrap!"


End file.
